The Merits and Pitfalls of Military Service

I can answer on the chow front as I have had chow from all the branches.

From best to worst.

1. Tie between Airforce and Navy. Both have good chow. Sailors have a long tradition of keeping their guys well fed to keep moral while afloat up. Both even have good field chow.
2. Army The chow is genrally edible even in the field.
3. Marines Worst damn chow. The on base chow halls are ok. Hot field kitchen is notable step down. Field Rations suck ass. The 2 drink biscuits, mysterys eggs, and "sausage" are likely not food.

Fortunately, MRE's can often save the day. Barring that, a king-sized Snickers bar or two will do as a meal in a pinch.

Omg MR Es are tasty!

I'll never forget Daddy packing them in my lunchbox one day when mom was upset he didn't do enough to help with us kids. I go to school, open my box, and there's Chicken al la King, oatmeal raisin bars, and mac n cheese all in neat little brown bags. He even threw in a canteen of water.

Then again this is the same guy who fixed my teddy bear with duck tape and made me a swing with a camp roll and paracord.

Hell, I didn't know the forces trained awesome fathers.

In Korea you are not called a real man until you finished your mandatory military service.

Fuck draft-dodging politicians and celebrities, which unfortunately seem to increase every year.

edited 26th Oct '12 7:53:12 PM by dRoy

My dad was the son of a Naval Captain. He went police because he wanted to spend more time with his family and wanted to choose his citizenship on his terms. He still went SWAT and trained a lot on the side with all sorts of people. So I got the best of both worlds.

The SWAT team he was with was really big on learning from anyone, several members went and did time as peacekeepers in Bosnia. They'll do runs with the local army base, and always volunteered for external training in DC. Half were Guardsmen. So it was pretty enlightening as a child.

What the crap is up with military uniforms?! I tried to be a good little spouse and iron my girlfriend's uniform after the steam didn't take and OMG I did it all wrong apparently! The crease in the pants was supposed to be two inches the other way, the shirt was "impossible to tuck in" how I did it, and apparently I said something wrong whenever I asked if they had a skirt option for the female officers. (I was genuinely curious!)

Anyway, at least I know how to shine shoes. So while she's cleaning her handguns and explaining the pieces to our 16 year old, I'm on google searching for the military requirements on where that damn crease is supposed to go...Why the hell do you guys need that many buttons?!

I assume you're talking about the dress blues? Believe me, I wish I knew, because that is the most uncomfortable uniform ever designed. As for the creases, what were you ironing? Because you've mentioned she's also Navy, and the NW Us aren't supposed to be ironed ...

Fuck...well, no wonder she was annoyed with me.

Dammit! Don't ask the civilian to get your uniform ready and then not tell her what that entails!

Ooo, sorry Polar. I hope that didn't ruin anything.

Thing is, it's probably easy to forget that someone who hasn't gone through the training doesn't know how it's done.

As for skirts, it depends, but their use has been decreasing over the years in most services worldwide as women become more integrated. It's unlikely to exist (or at least be commonly worn, even if it officially exists) in day-to-day uniforms, though it may still in more formal wear.

Heh. Never let civvies iron your kit. The Wife gave me a nice set of shiny tramlines down my eights once. Never let her near them again.

There are skirts for females but they are limited to certain uniform types and situations. Typically mess dress or ball type garb.

General uniforms will have pants.

Or trousers in Imperial.

I used to be able to iron shirts, jumpers and trousers and do a really good job of it. Now I have lost all my leet ninja ironing skillz. It is so bad.

Yeah, it's not "ruined" because I used a low enough setting. But I promised next time I'm assuming when she tells me to get her uniform, it better be from the on base dry cleaners or whatever.

She's not a big skirt girl unless it's above the knee stuff in summer. So I figured even if there was an option she wouldn't take it. Most of the time she's in coveralls anyway.

Getting to learn her slang and all these acronyms is a pain too. But I'm getting there.

She Air Force, Army, or Navy? I know she was something other then a Marine but I can't recall what.

Active Navy

Polarstem: I'd recommend finding a drycleaner place nearby. A few bucks and you're headache -free. Generally speaking, those sorts of places also do alterations and sew on patches and rank insignia for a pittance. Well worth the small price, if you ask me.

Duty fatigue uniforms (like those stupid camouflage uniforms the Navy has now), should be in my opinion, "fluff and buff" - clean and mostly wrinkle-free and black with a touch of shine on them. Starch has no business getting near camouflage uniforms at all. Ruins the IR dyes.

Tam - I too have lost all my ironing and shoe-shining skills. I am also all out of flips to give about that.

edited 27th Oct '12 7:32:29 PM by pvtnum11

[long post that's mostly irrelevant to the topic]

edited 5th Nov '12 2:57:27 PM by JimmyTMalice

I want to say the camo uniforms for all the services are "wash-n-wear". The Air Force's camo uniforms are even permanent-press with creases. For some reason.

Of course, if you read the tags, the old Battle Dress Uniform were strictly wash and wear too. Not sure where the ironing and starching them got started.

Food wise, Air Force chow (and what little Army chow) I've had has tended to be good, though it depends on the chow hall more than anything. There was a chow hall at Kunsan that would consistently ruin hamburgers. Somehow. They weren't overcooked, nor undercooked (most of the time). They were just overwhelmingly bland. Cover them in onions and mustard and pickles? Those would then taste bland too. It was like a black hole of flavorlessness.

The biggest problem with chow hall food is the monotony. It gets really old really quick. They try to change up the menus every so often, but it doesn't take that long to decide you're completley worn out on whatever item.

I remember that at RAF Upper Heyford, the mess hall was okay to good, but...

Every couple of months they would have an "ethnic food" week, only four out of the five days they wouldn't have the ingredients for the planned special dishes. The exception was "Southern Food Day", which always had plenty of okra.

Hah, the chow halls where I am at currently sometimes try to server Asian food or Mexican food. Having lived in Asia and in Texas, I can say that the resulting dishes were not terribly palatable.

Our chow halls in Ft. Gordon GA did good cheeseburgers, and since a serving was two of them, you could ask for a double. Heap up on fries, grab a cherry coke, and that was my dinner meal of choice for weeks.

Their omlettes to order were outstanding, too.

...the KP duty in those chow halls? Not very pleasant.

The best chow hall I've ever been to(and I've had lots of chances to try chow from every branch) was actually a marine corps chow hall. The chow hall in bridgeport at the marine corps mountain warfare training center is awesome. Not only is the food kickass, but one side of the chow hall is just a window, the entire wall is made of glass and it looks out on a beautiful panorama of the Sierra Nevada's.

Of course the chow was good because lots of their traffic is special operations, so they roll out the good stuff. No problems with that here since I got to take advantage of it too as an MP.